A Leaf Ninja's Way Of Letting Go
by Emmwel
Summary: Somethings are hard to let go, others are easy. Tenten is though needing some help to let go of her love, and Naruto is there to help her. One-shot!


**Author's note: Hey ;) I finally wrote a story that didn't ended up totally crappy! I thought that a one-shot was all I could handle, though. And I think I was kinda right there. Don't be too harsh on me, okay? Enjoy the reading!**

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It was a warm night, filled with many sounds you couldn't explain. But one sound was an exception. Someone was crying. Naruto Uzumaki stopped his late night walk and listened. He looked in every direction he could, trying to figure out where the sobbing came from. He scratched his head in frustration. He hated hearing people crying. He decided that the sound came from the park and walked fast at his destination. He walked faster and faster, in the end he was running, since the sobbing increased.

As he rounded a corner of the city, he saw the beautiful park at peace. But something wasn't in order. A figure shaking on a bench expressed its feeling through tears. The boy stood paralyzed for awhile, he had no idea of what to do. Should he try to comfort this person? Leave him or her alone? He thought about his alternatives as he walked closer.

But Naruto, who in his thinking state didn't notice a big stick on the ground, tripped and fell defenceless. He hit the hard ground and let out a moan.

'_Damn, that hurt…'_

Naruto saw the human stand up, and he quickly decided to rise up, and hide behind a tree. After a few seconds he decided to take a look.

The figure was a girl, with short brown hair. The moonlight shined on her so he could see her clearly. She had a simple white dress and white ballerina shoes. She watched the area, looking for the person who caused the sound. Since she didn't see anyone, she sat down and went back to crying.

Naruto kept watching her, but he had a weird feeling of recognizing her.

'_I'm sure I've met her before…'_

The girl began to shake as the night went on. She didn't complain though, she just ignored it and kept sobbing. Naruto watched her as he went through his options. He couldn't keep himself behind that tree long though, his curiosity took him over. He left his hideout and walked slowly at her, but she didn't notice anything. The boy sat down next to her on the bench, but she didn't acknowledge his present. Naruto sat quiet for a minute before he realized he was the on who would be talking. She didn't want to open up, it seemed.

"Hey." He said, because that was the best start he could think out.

"Hello." She said, turned around and looked at him. "Never knew I was going to meet you out here this late, Uzumaki-san."

'_It's Tenten! I knew I recognized her,'_

"I use to take walks when I can't sleep." He explained, though she didn't precisely ask him to do so.

"Oh." She answered; her gaze now at the pond. In the pond, there was two fishes jumping around happily, unknowing they had an audience. The minutes went by, both of them were quiet, Naruto because he couldn't come up with something to say, and Tenten because she just didn't wanted to say anything.

"I wish I could be that carefree." Tenten suddenly said. She stopped crying and watched the two fishes eagerly. It looked as if she would do anything to be a fish. This, Naruto though couldn't understand, he was about to ask, but stopped himself in the last second. She maybe would take it as an insult.

"Who doesn't?" He said instead. He looked at her from the corner of his eye. She looked devastated. Another thing he shouldn't say.

"You _are_ that carefree." She quickly responded. "You're the cheerfulness itself, Uzumaki-san."

"I guess that's a compliment? And call me Naruto; we know each other, remember!" He smiled a reassuring smile, and she smiled back. He then looked up to the sky still smiling. He wanted to comfort her, but didn't really know how.

'_Maybe I should ask what happened, yeah, that sounds like a good idea!'_

"Care enough to tell me what happened?" He asked her, afraid to say it on the wrong way.

"It's a bit embarrassing…" She whispered, and buried her face in her hands, and began to cry again.

He patted her back and she slowly went back to a state were she was able to talk.

"Come on, it can't be that bad." He comfortingly said, unsure about this though, since he had no idea what this all was about.

"You're right. I don't know if you know about it, but I've had a crush on Neji-kun since the Ninja Academy. And that, under the year's progress, changed into love. And today, I brought up the courage to tell him after training, and he didn't really feel the same. He didn't even want to give it a try." She quickly said, but Naruto heard all of it.

"So… you love him?" He stupidly asked.

"Well, yeah." She answered. "Being a fish seems nice."

Naruto was surprised at the last statement, but remembered the fishes in the pond and nodded slightly.

"One sided love is never fun, huh?" He said, and gave her a worried face.

"No really…" She gave him a little smile.

They both stared up at the sky; Tenten's gaze was finally leaving the fishes alone. Naruto was quiet. There was nothing he could say to convince her other wise, when Neji himself had crushed her hopes.

Tenten was just quiet because she also knew that, she didn't stand a chance. She sighed heavily, tired but not enough to go home just yet. She drifted of into her thoughts and almost forgot about Naruto even being there. She dreamt about another world, where she was a happy fish with no worries at all.

'_Life__ is so unfair.'_

She returned to the reality, and to her surprise, he was still there. She smiled, happy for him being there for her, in his own little way.

"Why are you taking a walk this late? Something on your mind too?" She curiously asked him, watching him with her brown eyes.

"What? Oh… no, just Sasuke. But he's always on my mind lately." He grinned reassuringly, but not even Tenten, who didn't know Naruto that well, believed that smile. He wasn't okay.

"It'll be fine." She said, though they both knew this wasn't true.

They sat there for another hour, talking about almost everything. Naruto suddenly stood up, grabbed her hand and helped her up. She gave him a questioning look and he took plenty of time to answer.

"Let's do something about it, sitting around here won't help, will it?!" He cheerfully said.

Tenten gave him a small smiled before agreeing.

They walked around the city, with no real plan on what to do, except enjoying the other ones company. Naruto's stomach suddenly growled, and Tenten jumped with surprise, which made him laugh.

"To bad Ichiraku isn't open." He complained. She laughed happily, almost forgetting her troubles.

"We can always break in," She playfully commented.

"Yeah, right… because that's something both you and I do everyday." He answered.

"Always." She replied.

He quickly stopped their walk and shouted in triumph.

"I've got a great idea! Come on, let's find a tree!" Naruto shouted, grabbed her hand and dragged her away. He ran really fast, she almost couldn't keep up.

"Hey! What's all this about? And I can run self, thank you." She let go of his hand and stopped. He turned around, with a wide grin over his face.

"I came up with this idea, how to let someone go!" He said, very excited to try this idea. Tenten though, didn't really think it would work.

"Naruto-kun… no to be mean or anything, but you're that good on romantic stuff." She insecurely said.

"Let's try it, okay?" He smiled at her, and she couldn't help to agree.

'_He's very convincing, who would have known…'_

They began to run again. The city flashed by, their speed increased by every minute. They ended up next to an ordinary tree.

"Are you ready to let him go?" He asked her politely. She just stared at the tree, not remembering how it was not to love Neji. As long as she could remember, it had been there. Maybe in the background, but it was always there, unspoken. Was she ready to change?

'_If I don't do this, I'll never be a strong kunoichi, like Tsunade…' _

"Some encouragement would be nice." She half joked and half begged answered.

"You can do it because you're Tenten!" Naruto directly shouted.

She laughed, and he laughed too.

"What am I supposed to do then?" She asked him.

Naruto approached the tree, and picked a leaf. "Here." He said. "When you're ready, let it go, and let your love fly away with it." He smiled, and filled her with courage.

'_I can do this.' _

"No chance this will work!" She told him, not really sure why, but she felt that if she did let the leaf go, this night would be over.

"It will, I promise! Believe it!" He gave her thumbs up.

She concentrated hard on transferring her love to this little leaf. All memories went up to the surface, but she wasn't feeling crushed. The feeling she felt was relief, this would finally come to an end.

He watched her, impatiently, because he wanted to see if it would work. He didn't rush her though; he gave her all the time in the world. Tenten slowly opened her eyes, which gave him a deciding impression.

"I'm ready!" She shouted happily.

"Okay! One… two… three… and let it go!" He said.

She let the leaf go, and closed her eyes and began to look after the familiar feeling. She couldn't find it. It was gone.

"I think it worked." She whispered. Her eyes was following the leaf, as the wind brought it away.

"Told you so!" He answered.

They watched the leaf fly away, and with the leaf, her love.

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**How did that work out? Tell me in your review please. But like I said, don't be to hard on me. Criticism needed, as you might see, haha. Hugs!**


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